Saturday, July 18, 2009

Tails: Life in Progress

I've mentioned before that one of the real joys of maintaining a blog about comics and stuff is that you get to interact with all manner of folks who share the same interests, albeit sometimes with different tastes, preferences, etc. Above and beyond the diverse comments made in response to any of my posts, I am occasionally contacted by some very creative individuals who make their living in the comics industry - or some nice people who are trying to.

Ethan Young is an NYC-based comic book artist who has been drawing since the age of three. He started his career in the comics industry as a self publisher, eventually winning a "Best Graphic Novel" prize during the 2007 Independent Publishers Book Awards for his semi-autobiographical comedy, Tails: Life in Progress. Ethan has recently relaunched his series as a webcomic. “Tails” is a slice of life strip about the misadventures of Ethan, a young, quirky Asian vegan still living at home with his parents while struggling to become a cartoonist. The series gets it’s title from the fact that he's an animal rescuer with a dozen cats

Ethan's career encompasses a wide range of projects, including: storyboards, t-shirts, video games, character designs, print ads, book covers, album covers, logos, and much more. Tailscomic.com features an updated/re-edited version of the original story, along with new stories. The site is updated every Tuesday and Thursday. The website also features new stories that continue the misadventures of Ethan.

He has a polished art-style that is very engaging; plus the humor between "Ethan", his girlfriend Sin and a horde of felines (with Shugie being the most prominent), really grabs you right at the outset and pulls you into his excellent story. Tails was a nice surprise for me and for anyone wanting to read something a bit different from most mainstream comics, that is still fun and entertaining - I highly encourage you to follow the link [above] and check it out.

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How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!